RAVE: Secret by Jonathan Hickman and Ryan Bodenheim.

 

    "Never Get Caught" - Secret

    At the beginning of this month, I have done my now patented review of all media I consume during 'X' month Rants and Raves. Spoiler if you have no seen read it or seen it but my tied number one piece of content for the month of September is 'Secret'. I say shared because it was tied with a Korean Drama me and my wife watched called 'Moving' which was just as amazing as 'Secret'.  'Moving' and 'Secret' also have earned a new distinction, something I have called the 'Golden' RAVE which means it is hands down my favorite content of the month so it'll differ itself from other highly rated content. 'Moving' however has got its flowers not just from me but from the massive amount of people who have watched it. It is critically acclaimed and publicly lauded as one of the best K-dramas of 2023 when it first aired and rightfully so, it is an amazing piece of media. However on the other hand I believe that 'Secret' does not get the accolades I feel it deserves so for that reason and others; I present to you, my RAVE for 'Secret' by Jonathan Hickman and Ryan Bodenheim.

    The Man with the Plan.

    After revitalizing the Fantastic Four; creating Secret Warriors with Brian Michael Bendis and his other slept on masterpiece S.H.I.E.L.D, Jonathan Hickman was called the new architect of the Marvel Universe by Marvel themselves. They put all their faith in him as they gave him full reign over Marvel's biggest property at the time, the Avengers. This was around the time the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was at the height of its powers so for him to be given the rein over the golden goose truly showed how much Marvel believed in him. A lot of the MCU biggest moments owes its very existence to Hickman and I often do that Leonardo DiCaprio meme when I spot his fingerprints in their films. Some of its biggest upcoming events still to come in the movies is again drawing a lot of influence from him, specifically Avengers: Secret Wars. So what I am trying to say is Hickman is a master of his craft and when he plans, he plans big. Over the last 10-12 years, when it comes to reading comics, I know if I pick up a Jonathan Hickman book, I am due for a good time. He is consistently the only writer I would go to a comic book store and pick up a floppy (aka a single issue of a comic) over what I normally buy because I can not wait for the trade. He is my favorite comic book writer of all time, easy. So I am saying all of this because I read anything he writes and for the longest time I had a book of his on deck but I never pulled the trigger. That book is called 'Secret'.

    I have purchased all of Hickman's creator owned/ independent work through the years after making him my favorite writer. When ether it be the hard sci-fi of 'The Red Wing', the thought provoking time travelling saga 'Pax Romana' or his magnus opus (at least so far to me) Western epic that is 'East of West'. I, however was missing two series, one was the 'The Dying and the Dead' and the other was 'Secret', ironically both drawn by Ryan Bodenheim. I have since corrected that and I now own both. Tragically 'The Dying and the Dead' was never finished and it looks like it never will be due to the passing of Ryan Bodenheim but 'Secret' was and what a story it weaves.

    Using all the hallmarks of a good Hickman story; 'Secret' combines witty dialogue, morally grey characters, a epic plot and a killer ending. It focuses on a private security firm stumbling onto the something much larger then them after the death of one of their own. As our main characters try to get the bottom of the titular secret and get some revenge a long the way it all explodes, literally. People die, uneasy alliances are exposed and betrayals most foul. I won't give away anymore because I honestly want anyone that reads this RAVE to read the book for themselves.

    Now here comes the crazy part. It is not super easy and I feel it is because 'Secret' has fallen in the cracks. The 'Secret' trade paperback which collects all seven issues is not available on Amazon. You can not even purchase the physical singular issues, everything concerning 'Secret' is only through digital means. As a collector/ fan of physical media especially for things I love, this was un-acceptable. Because of this I had to go outside of my normal haunts and I was only able to get my hands on it thanks to Ebay. This is not the first time Ebay has come in clutch for me and it probably won't be the last. Now I think about it, all my most recent purchase for this duo of Hickman and Bodenheim has been through Ebay. I purchased their previous collabo 'Red Mass for Mars' through them and their last collabo, the aforementioned 'Dying and the Dead' as well. Funny that. Because it slip through the cracks a lot of people do not know just how good this book is. I do not see any Youtube explained videos for it, or 'read this comic' videos and it is a shame and one of the reasons why this RAVE exists. The other reason is I want to draw attention Hickman's collaborator and the person who brought 'Secret' to life, Ryan Bodenheim.

This image is from 'The Dying and the Dead' Issue # 1

    Eyes Wide Open

    Ryan Bodenheim or as he like to be called Bode is a self taught artist from Oklahoma but he spent most of his time in Dayton, Ohio, which is wild to me because that is super close to where I live. Ryan peacefully passed away in Dec, 2021 and I must say the world has lost a prodigious talent in his departure. I found Ryan's art of course through Jonathan Hickman and their collaboration, 'The Dying and the Dead' and I was blown away by his talent. There is one splash page in 'TDD' that still to this day, takes my breath away and as I type this I think I might have it framed for my office. From that day onwards, my eyes were wide open. Sadly, 'TDD' was never completed and was plagued by delays so I never really got to experience it until last month when I finally bought all the available issues from... you guessed it, Ebay. My next experience with Bode's work was him and Hickman's first collaboration 'Red Mass for Mars.' Again I was blown away by how hyper detailed Bode's work was and whilst the story for 'Red Mass for Mars' is good, it is the art which truly made me like it. In 'Secret' I truly got the best of both worlds with both of them at their peaks. I mean look at the image above and say you are not in awe.

    Sadly, related to Bodenheim not getting his flowers while he was here, only 'Red Mass for Mars' is readily available for regular purchase easily (again not digital.) and there has never been a trade paper back for 'TDD'. I think this is criminals because instead of people seeing the praises of Ryan, we instead have hacks like Greg Land and AI artists clogging our internet feeds. Again, it is not much but here, I am using my platform and voice to elevate that Ryan Bodenheim might be the one of best artist you have never heard of and a gem for anyone who have discovered him. His beautifully detailed art, spot on reflections, complex storytelling techniques and way he was able to collaborate with frequently colorist Michael Garland is a sight to be seen. Speaking of.

    A Family Affair

    Using a style they started in 'Red Mass for Mars'; Michael Garland's coloring brings another dimension to Bode's art. All three projects collaborations of Hickman/ Bodenheim/ Garland use a distinctive coloring which is unlike anything I have ever seen and it is in full display in 'Secret'. This might take some getting used to at first but once you see it is part of the process; you'll grow to like it. This is use to perfection in 'Secret' and 'TDD' and I can not sing praises for 'Secret' without acknowledging the importance of its colorist.

    The color red is used perfectly and sticks out like blood on a monochrome figure, men's ties and a spook's glasses. It actually inspired my new profile picture on the side of this blog. The irony is not loss on me that in a world of blurred lines with no black or white hats, a world filled with spies and secret societies, a more subdued palette is used and to great effect. Also amazingly, Michael Garland is not known for coloring comics but as an author and illustrator of children's novels... like what?!

Is this was the cover I might have bought it day one.

    "I've always been the boss."

    Earlier in this RAVE, I discussed why 'Secret' was one of the last Hickman independent projects I have picked up. I mentioned how it is not mentioned in a lot of conversations of what Hickman has done. He has done three different books with the word 'Secret' in it, he has also written 'Secret Wars' and 'Secret Warrirors' with both getting much more attention then this, his independent project. I mentioned how hard it was to purchase through regular means and having to resort to Ebay of all things (which I have come to discover is amazing at getting my hands on niche things I enjoy) but I will not lie to you. One of the major reasons why I didn't pick up 'Secret' originally was because of the cover they picked for the first issue and the trade paperback. Yes, the very same image that started this RAVE. I'll admit it, I judged a book by its cover. Sure, the cover makes sense and in the same first issue it plays big into the story but I just could never escape how strange it was. All of Hickman's covers are strikingly unique with amazing use of negative space so for this cover to just be what it was, I didn't buy it. By sheer luck, I stumbled on 'Secret' during a library visit and borrowed it and as soon as I finished reading it I was like... I need this in my life and bought it. HECK, I am going to buy a second copy because my original copy is kind of in a bad shape (you get what you pay for I guess) so I'm going back to Ebay to purchase another copy and I am giving the beat-up one to my bestie because honestly, people need to know about Hickman, Bodenheim and Garland and if it falls on me to spread the message, consider me contagious.

    Beyond a shadow of a doubt; it is no longer a 'Secret' (to me at least) and it gets a massive RAVE.

AV

P.S Now I have completed my Hickman independents collections, I'll be making a LIST ranking my favorites to my not favorites because I do not have any least favorites when it comes to Hickman. It'll be out later this month.

LIST: July's Rants & Raves

     So as I focused more on my writing these days and less on gaming, I have fallen into a pattern of writing during the day and watching films and TV shows in the evening. Anyone who follows this blog knows I like to do something called Rants & Raves: Quickies which collects all my reviews and normally after I see it; I leave a quick review. Like Snap chat tho, none of these reviews are archived after I update it... until now. I will repost all my thoughts about all the media I have watched this month and I'll use my LIST blog format to rate them from my least to my favorite. I also give them my typical rating of RAVE, Rave, OKAY, Okay, RANT which goes from the highest to the lowest rating. Without more to say.

8. The Predator - 6.5/10 - Okay

    On certain days; my bottom 2 are actually inter-changeable. I, however remembered how much I disliked how much of the key Predator lore was changed with this film and the whole scene when the kid was wearing the Predator helmet took it over the top as my least favorite. The supporting cast was not needed and while Sterling K Brown is an amazing actor (more on him later) he was really working with what he had with this film and it was not much. The ending was weird and obvious sequel bait which it did not need.

    Shane Black is a good director, unlike some people I like his approach to Iron Man 3 and the fact he was part of the original film and he made the film like this? Nope. Not only this is the bottom of my list,  this film gets the second lowest possible rating from me and my least favorite Predator film in the entire franchise and yes that includes both Alien vs Predator movies. Move over AvP: Requiem, we have a new stinker to occupy your spot. Thank goodness for the course correction by Prey because if The Predator was where the franchise was heading, it would have been only downhill from here.

7. The Old Guard 2 - 6.5/10 - Okay

    I will happily admit I enjoyed The Old Guard. It is a solid 8/10 film with interesting world-building, likeable characters and a strong female lead in Charlize Theron. I remembered how excited I was when the sequel was finally announced and given a release date. I told my wife we were so going to watch it opening weekend on Netflix. Unlike The Predator which I knew wasn't a great film after I watched it, my dis-like for The Old Guard 2 has increased over time. I initially gave it a 7.5 after I first viewed it and the score kept dropping.

    What is wrong with this film? One of the people we thought was going to be the major antagonist (and rightfully so) was pushed aside for a big name and Uma's performance just felt phoned in. She truly was not a threat and all the time building up her up ended with a decent fight at the end and more sequel baiting again. What has happened to the art of telling a complete story? Much like The Predator, the supporting cast felt bloated and even the addition of an actor I like in Henry Golding, seemed to added just to be an exposition guy. The fight scenes which was a highlight of the first one seemed bare-boned in this one and the only real good fight was the un-armed between Andy (Charlize's character) and person who should have been the villain for this one, Quynh. On top of that, it seemed they filmed it as cliffhanger and from all the promotion press I have seen, a third one has not even been greenlit. It reminds me of a TV show purposely ending on a cliffhanger but it has not been renewed yet so they try to fish for interest and hope people change their minds and then renew it. I hate that. If you know the writing is on the wall for a project, just write with a finale in mind.

6. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom - 7.5/10 - Rave

    Aquaman 2 was good. Very paint by the numbers and some cool scenes but it was not anything else. By MCU standards I would call it the 'Thor: The Dark World' type of film which itself is a very serviceable film but also pretty forgettable. Also funny is how much it shared with The Dark World, a powerful God-like hero but acts like a everyday man, a villain who never really exuded any real menace, a basic plot of waking a bigger evil and even the Thor and Loki half-brother dynamic revisited by Aquaman and own half-brother Orm.

    On the rating scale, it was much better than the two movies above it and the actors all did a great job but you could tell this movie felt like it was filmed to fill a quota and some moments really slowed down the pace of it. It is sad to say, this was the film which ended the original DC film universe and it was a whimper not a bang.

5. The Hobbit (The Trilogy) - 8/10 - RAVE

    This is a review for all three films of the Hobbit trilogy which I watched in one night. Yes, I was crazy to watch almost 9 hours of Middle-Earth but you can blame Amazon Prime because they are going to remove it from their service and I wanted to see it before it was too late.

    I come to The Hobbit sharing a lot of thoughts that the fandom have, why 3 movies when the source is a short children's novel? Why the over-use of CGI when the original trilogy had much better creature design especially the Orcs. Why Legolas and his endless aura farming and taking time away from the actual characters from the novel?

    I love the Lord of the Ring movies, they have a spot in my top 10 movies of all time. The Hobbit however was just... good. Almost great at times especially in the scenes with Smaug but this film just reeks of studio influence and now knowing now how Warner Bros. operates; greed. At time I lost interest with these films while I was still watching it which I have never done in any other Tolkein adaptions. I can't even blame the fact they got a different director because Peter Jackson came back and he still does a good job but I felt with a bit of restraint and sticking closer to the source material, these movies could have been another classic. As it stands, it was a good distraction for one night.

4. Alien Romulus - 8/10 - RAVE

    Okay, now we actually get to the good stuff. Alien Romulus was really good. As a mild Alien fan (I have always preferred Predator more) I enjoyed the back to basics approach Romulus had. It functioned as a sci-fi film, it functioned as horror film and it functioned as a Alien film. Like Prey for Predator, Romulus understood the assignment and after stripping away all the excess of Prometheus and Covenant lore, we actually had a thrilling story with great co-leads in Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson. There is a scene in the film which maybe one of the best Alien-related scenes I have ever seen and is worth the price of admission alone. Some of the callbacks felt un-necessary and cheesy and I am happy they cleared the legalities behind a certain actor's appearance.

    Based on this film, I am actually excited for Alien Earth and will actually give it a try now because I want more stories told in this world especially if they are done this well.

3. Superman - 8.5/10 - RAVE

    Anyone who knows me knows I am a dedicated Marvel stan. 85% of the comics I read are Marvel. I love Marvel games, I love Marvel movies and I love Marvel characters. True story, I only watched this film because it was a part of a church outing. So I am saying all this to say, I really enjoyed this film. Like really, really. I loved how we basically skipped the origin story we have been told numerous times and we were dropped into the action of a already established Superman. He was already dating Lois and he had already revealed his identity to her. He has already made enemies and friends and we finally brought in elements we have never seen before. Here is Krypto! Here is the Engineer! Here is Mister Terrific and he was... Terrific. Mr. T stole the show and I know a lot of people agree with me. All the actors did a great job with one of the best portrayals of Lois, Jonathan and Ma Kent and Clark I have seen in awhile and Nicholas Hoult killing it as Lex especially after the last dismal attempt from the Social Network kid. This is the Lex we all signed up for.

    The message was timely about acceptance and how all of us despite being called aliens by others are deep down, human. I love how anti-MAGA crowd this film was and not so subtle nods to other issues in the real world. James Gunn is going to be a core piece of the new DC film universe like how Kevin Feige was for Marvel and if this is what he has planned for us, I am impressed. Now lets hope DC keeps up the momentum and continued to put out good films like this one. Supergirl for example looks... interesting. Also it is ironic that I watched the end of the old DC universe and the birth of the new one in the same month.

2. The Sandman Season 2 - 8.5/10 - RAVE

    So remember I said everything above about being a Marvel fan? Yes? So why is Sandman, a DC property my favorite comic book show outside of maybe Invincible. Well it is because it is really damn good. The first season of The Sandman was art and the second season kept the pace, mostly. It introduced the remaining cast of The Endless, Dream's eclectic family and each person was perfectly casted like Dream, Death and Desire. For once, a massive ensemble cast did not hurt a show, it helped it.

    My only gripe is the first half of Season 2 felt much stronger to me compared to the second half. The second half did drag a bit for me and the final showdown with the Furies (don't call them that- watch the show and you'll get it) was rather anti-climatic. Also *SPOILERS* they went with the K-drama ending where the story ended just when it really picked up with the new Dream meeting his new/old family, something that was teased endlessly (pun intended) through out the episode and we just get a glimpse of it. Ugh. *SPOILERS*

    However despite the drama surrounding the creator, I am happy Netflix was able to still release this masterpiece for all of us and gave us a good ending. I feel The Sandman TV series as a whole makes a great defense for TV as a medium to tell better stories compared to the source because I enjoy the Sandman books but I LOVE the TV series. I also have an unhealthy obsession with Death in this show and I think Kirby Howell-Baptiste may one of the best people ever casted for a character since Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark. I think I have never watched a Marvel TV show that has reached the heights of The Sandman for me so kudos DC, you win this one. However, despite all this high praise, this is still not my favorite content for the month of July.

1. Paradise Season 1 - 9/10 - RAVE

    So me and my wife are big fans of the TV show This is Us. My wife calls it one of her favorite shows of all time and I definitely put it in my Top 5. One of the best parts of This is Us is the how well Dan Fogelman, the creator of the show understood Sterling K. Brown's strengths and he played to it. So when me and my wife heard that the two will be re-uniting for Paradise, we were hyped. Then the trailer dropped and we were even more hyped. We do not have Hulu tho so we had to wait for Disney Plus to air as part of their relationship with Hulu. Needless to say, when it became available, we devoured all the episodes in a couple nights and we were not disappointed.

    Part thriller, part cautionary tale, part murder mystery and filled with some incredible acting , this is the best TV show I have watched this year. I do not want to spoil it because it is still a relatively new show so people are still getting into it but when I say 2 episodes of this show top my favorite episodes of a TV of all time, I am not lying. If you watched you will know what one of the episodes is because everyone has said the same thing. I will not say much more because I want people to enjoy with the same fresh eyes I did, however, have no doubt, this is my favorite show for July and possibly the year so far.

AV

RAVE: Mortal Shell

 " For that in sleep of death, what dreams may comes

when we have shuffled off this mortal coil

must give us pause" - William Shakespeare

 

    When the trailer for Mortal Shell 2 dropped, I was reminded how much I love the world Cold Symmetry had created and it made me want to dive back into the original. When I finally played it on PS4, the first couple of hours was some of the most frustrating, non intuitive gaming I had ever experienced. I kept dying to regular enemies, the parry felt weird and because Mortal Shell is very open ended in where you can go, I found myself in the 'hardest' area first with no way to return to the opening hub so I could start over. In a strange way, it reminded me of my first couple hours with Dark Souls 3, my first real Souls game. It is funny then that much like Dark Souls 3 has now become one of my favorite Souls game once I finally understood Mortal Shell and it started clicking, it has become now become my favorite Souls-like of all time. Now after I have 100% both the main game and its incredibly well made DLC 'The Virtuous Cycle' I happily present my RAVE of Mortal Shell.

Empty Vessels

    The story of Mortal Shell revolves around the Foundling. A mysterious entity that possess unique abilities that allows them to turn into stone aka harden and to possess the empty bodies of long dead warriors. When the Foundling possess them, they take on the attributes of the warrior they have commandeered. For example, when they possess the speedy thief/ assassin Tiel, they become a master of poisons and hit and run tactics. When they possess Eredim, they become a tank powered by a their righteousness beliefs. Along the way, the Foundling also finds a couple important figures, Hadern, the ruthless taskmaster who challenges them at certain points to teach them their true powers, Sester Genessa, the lore-smith who tells them about the world and the shells they inhabit and the Old Prisoner; a mysterious being who gives the Foundling purpose. There is more to the story of course with the plot twists and labyrinthine connections between the shells and each of the important characters in this dark world but this review is not about the lore, those can be found on YouTube. Instead this is my personal take on why Mortal Shell is worthy of your time especially if you enjoy the Souls/ Action RPG games.

    One of the most impressive things about Mortal Shell is how it was developed by a relatively small indie team and despite some jank (which we will address later) it is still a very concise, well crafted entry into a fast growing (some might say, over-saturated) Souls-like genre. The developers Cold Symmetry (CS) wear there inspirations on their sleeves and it pays homage in many ways to the games that has inspired them but not without their own takes to make it unique it is own way. Also impressive is how just how good it looks. For their debut title, CS has shown they know how to use the Unreal engine to make a game filled with impressive environments and impactful action. One area in particular, the Seat of Infinity is a sight to behold, with dramatic lighting, impossible architecture and obsidian landscapes as far as the eye can see. When it comes to visuals, CS are definitely punching above their weight class. The shells and NPCs are well detailed as well, each having their own distinct flair. Each of the three main areas also have some distinctive enemies and a main boss, catered to the area. Equally impressive is when Mortal Shell came to the next generation consoles, like the PS5 and the Xbox Series, they even upped the visual fidelity even more. Mortal Shell maybe be made by a almost indie studio but they delivered a double almost triple A visuals, something that needs to be applauded. The audio is top notch too with crunchy sound effects, well done voice acting for all the major characters and a great soundtrack. The bosses even have special soundtracks done by heavy metal band, Rotting Christ which you can turn on and off at will and I say turn it on because it really adds to the epic nature of the battles. I am happy to say, it seems they kept the metal soundtrack for the sequel as well judging by usage of Behemoth in the trailer. I have played it on my base PS4 but this review is based on my time using my Steam Deck and it looks great most of the time. The frame rate can get choppy at times in certain areas and you definitely need to play with the settings especially when the fog comes in because at one point until I made some graphical adjustments I could not see anything.

    Mortal Shell is a great game but it does have some flaws. The main area which links the three mission areas, Fallgrim is very same-y and lacks any visual oomph. It is very easy to get lost especially when you first start the game because most of Fallgrim has the same look, the color palate is bland and it gets less appealing when the area gets completely covered in fog. In all honesty, I can see a lot of people drop the game if the only areas they experience are the opening areas and the game is very challenging especially when you are unfamiliar with how it plays. But stick with it and you will find a diamond in the rough.

Shell Game

    Mortal Shell plays like your typical Souls-like at first. It is third person, you have a stamina bar, you can dodge and roll and even minor enemies are tough to overcome. When you die and trust me you will die, you will respawn at your last save point and you'll need to regain your corpse and gain back all the currency you had with it (called 'tar' in this game). However Mortal Shell does play with the genre too and adds some distinct changes to make it its own thing. First off, you do not level up the way you do in most Souls games, instead you choose a shell to level up. Treating each shell like its own class, you unlock skills in your shell of choice. These skills are built around your shell too, Solomon for example, most of his skills focus on 'resolve' a special meter you need to parry and use weapon skills, Harros on the other hand leans more into the game's harden mechanic. You are also not locked into one shell and you can change between them at anytime once you find all of them. In a way, Mortal Shell leans hard into a Dungeons and Dragons approach to classes, you choose the class that suits your playstyle the most.

    Combat is also diversified by how flexible it is. Mortal Shell has your typical light and strong melee attacks and running attacks but it also allows you to chain any of these skills into each other like a fighting game. One of the best attacks in the game is light, light, heavy but you can also do light, heavy, heavy or even light, heavy, jumping attack. These combos can also be cancelled at anytime thanks to Mortal Shell's most unique mechanic, hardening. No shell in this game has a shield, instead, you are taught very early on the best way to combat enemy aggression is to get hard... literally. Your shell turns into stone and enemy attacks just bounce off you. This unique mechanic is first thought of as purely a defensive maneuver but with time and experimenting, you can use offensively as well and this is where instead of slowing your attacks down and backing off you use your harden to stay up close and personal. Combine this with a very robust parry system that is not locked to a shield or class, Mortal Shell more like Sekiro and Bloodborne where aggression is key and you turn your enemies offense against them. I called the parry system robust because when you first learn to parry, its main purpose is to restore health but over time and as you unlock more upgrades, you can made your enemy explode in a ball of fire (and take out their allies), freeze time and even unleash the full power of the Foundling in a flurry of attacks. The parry timing itself is not strict and a lot of people who first play the game do not get it. Mortal Shell's parry is more about timing it just before the enemy attacks and as a gamer who loves him a good parry, it is very satisfying when you pull it off visually and audibly thanks to the game's great sound design. This gameplay loop is one of the reasons I come back to MS, its combat is actually very intuitive and rewarding once you master it.

    Another way Mortal Shell is not like the others is in how you use consumables. Mortal Shell's consumables have a familiarity levels and the more you use them the more familiar you become the better the benefits are. This actually encourages you to use consumables and to use them often to really reap the benefits. Again, Cold Symmetry has taken a system that taken for granted and adds its own unique spin on it which I appreciate. Mortal Shell is one of the few games where I actually use 90% of the items I collect where-in most Souls games I just ignore them. These unique twists on a well worn genre is one of the reasons why Mortal Shell is not just a Dark Souls clone but its own unique take on the familiar gameplay of "attack, roll, await for the stamina to refill, attack again" loop.

Beautiful... yet so Sparse

Cracks in the Surface

        However not all aspects of Mortal Shell scream quality and there is definitely some flaws. One of the flaws is its length, the game only has 3 main areas as well as the hub area and even with the runback necessary after beating each main boss; the game isn't that long. The DLC does not add any additional areas either if anything, they simply remixes them (certain enemies show up earlier or in different locations then in the main game). This probably comes down to what was do-able with such a small team but a even bigger issue is that some areas feel empty. Even through I sang it praises earlier in this review, certain parts of the Seat of the Infinity is purely there just to be there and there is some empty spaces filled with no enemies or anything of importance. In a way, it kind of reminds me of the later parts of the original Dark Souls; which was also lacking in polish compared to the earlier areas (Undead Burg vs Lost Izalith). The enemy variety also takes a hit with certain areas sharing the same enemy type but with different outfit and the mini-bosses being either reskinned Grishas or regular enemies with boss health bars. During the fog events which happens during the mandatory runback after beating major bosses, all enemies are also replaced with one of the most annoying enemies and Grishas which isn't that thrilling. Speaking of the fog runback, it does artificially extend the length of the game and is kind of tedious (especially on the second or third time it happens) it is at least not egregious like it was in Ghost Song, where it was just too long.

    A couple of minor flaws is the DLC weapon, the axetana (a transforming axe/ katana) has a very flawed weapon skill for the katana which cause you to get stuck in terrain and you have to use the skill again to get loose or quit out and originally the axe weapon skill would get you stuck on top of enemies and other jank so you could tell it was not fully tested (that and the fact the katana's running attack is kind of OP). Also for some strange reason, your character does not have invincible frames when you exit the traversal tunnels (which this game has plenty of) which is a massive oversight and was never patched out surprisingly. Enemies can also get a bit glitched when they are killed by the range weapon the aptly named 'Ballistazooka' and just bad collision with enemies and the arenas. Nothing horrible but it is definitely noticeable and has never been fixed despite update patches. What however can not be excused is the final boss. This final boss is a spectacle and its arena is impressive but the battle itself is a battle of patience and frustration. They have way too much health and even with a maxed out weapon takes forever to die (especially compared to every other boss) and said boss even has a mechanic where it can heal themselves to prolong the fight even more. This boss is so frustrating to fight against I try to avoid the battle for as long as humanly possible and during my no-shell run, where one hit can kill I became so very frustrated fighting them. This boss is so badly designed and the fact you need to fight him no matter what (at least in the main game) almost dropped this game's final ranking from the highest rank RAVE to the second highest rating which is Rave (not all Caps). Yes, they are that annoying to fight. However, this final battle and even some other flaws are rectified in this game's well thought-out DLC 'The Virtuous Cycle'.

Ouroboros

    The Virtuous Cycle is Mortal Shell's only DLC but if you enjoyed Mortal Shell, it is an essential purchase. Taking the best parts of the game; it re-imagines it as a rogue-lite ala Hades and becomes a endlessly re-playable mode with some new elements. Death is now permanent and their is no respawning and like all good rogue-lites, it has meta progression and it encourages you to keep going. It also adds Hadern, the foreboding weapon master as a playable character with a variable skill kit where he can draw from any other shells abilities and mix and match them and is easily the most strongest shell when mastered. Also added is the aforementioned axetana which is 2 weapons in one ala Bloodborne's trick weapons and a brand new NPC, the twin sister of the Foundling who provides more lore and a little bit of snark as well: "do you think you can just... git gud?"  is one of my favorite lines from her. Hadern and axetana are also available in the main game too now as well which is nice.

    This mode also does away with the regular healing items and instead has power up pillars which gives you a variety of skills to choose from and allows you to make your own class/ build as well as heal you too. You can also heal via picking up consumables and you can still use your parry to siphon back health too. Each run is randomized as well so each run should be unique in their own special way. Unexpected enemies show up in unexpected places and another cool addition is that the alternate colors/ shades can be earned through completing in-game tasks now and they all have some pro and cons for using them (unlike in the main game where its just simply for aesthetics). There is also a on-going progression unlocks which you can upgrade over time to make runs easier. Again, this mode draws heavily from Hades but again like how it showed homage to Dark Souls in the main game with its own spin, they do the same in this mode as well. Nothing beats the feeling of a later Virtuous Cycle run where your roll not only freezes enemies in their place but you can also roll twice as far combined with near infinite stamina. Like all good rogue-lites when your character gets strong, nothing can stop them.

    Mortal Shell is already a shorter game so turning it into a rogue-lite is something that was do-able without changing too much of its core DNA. If anything, it is streamlined even more and two of the main annoyance in the main game, the backtracking after killing a major boss and the final boss are both removed and in place of the final boss, we have a much more challenging but much better battle which I will not spoil (despite the game being 5 yrs old now). The irony is this game mode is Elden Ring Nightreign before Nightreign was even a thing. A souls rogue-lite? Yeah, we already did that Cold Symmetry said. All in all, the Virtuous Cycle adds even more re-playability to a game that was already fun to play.

Immortal Souls

    I was inspired to play Mortal Shell again and write this review because the Mortal Shell 2 trailer really got me excited and reminded me how much I enjoyed playing it the first time. As I played it again I was quickly reminded how much I enjoyed it and it actually inspired me to 100% it this time so with no qualms I locked in and got to it. Some of the achievements like the no shell run were some real challenges but here is the thing. I love most of the experience (with the exception of fighting the final boss... they can go to Hell) and I only really want to 100% a game if it really taps into something in me. The grim setting, each shell's backstory, the Virtuous Cycle's lore and so much more really appealed to me. The combat loop, harden mechanic and parry focus kept me playing and despite some minor flaws, this is my favorite Souls-like. It is the closest to Dark Souls experience you can get without actually playing a Souls game but at the same time, it has its own flair and flavor that you feel like you are not playing a carbon copy. Mortal Shell is its own beast and its savage. I wish more people would give it an honest try because I think once it clicks, you'll enjoy it as much as I have. Also if they did this much with their debut, I am excited to see what Cold Symmetry can cook up with a hopefully a bigger budget and scope. I feel the trailer shows a team ready to shock us all over again. Whilst we wait for that, the original deserves it flowers and definitely the highest rating I can give a game.

AV

RAVE: GRIME

     "And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you"

  - Friedrich Nietzsche

    I play videogames and occasionally I like to write reviews. Most of my reviews fall under a couple categories, RANT (which I do not like), OKAY (a decent affair, has good elements but also some problems I can't ignore), Rant (a great game, very few faults but missing the secret sauce) and RAVE (the highest recommendation and everything I want in a game). After a couple of just 'Rave' this year we have finally arrived at our first RAVE for this year and a game that is quickly becoming a favorite of mine along the lines of Darkest Dungeon I and II, Inscryption and Risk of Rain 2 (which all previously received RAVEs). This is my review of the dark, mysterious and completely engrossing GRIME.

    Get Bitten

    GRIME is classified as a metroidvania (mv) with Souls-like combat developed by Clover Bite/ Team Malignant and published by Akupara Games, Team Malignant however is the main force behind GRIME and for a relatively small indie studio of six developers and some back up teams, what they have accomplished is a true mark of dedication to your craft. GRIME looks amazing, its aesthetic is second to none, being alien and foreign but at the same time oddly familiar and the fact they made it all with the Unity game engine blows my mind. So many times when I was playing it I had to just marvel that they used the same engine that so many others used and it looks nothing like I seen done before. For an indie studio, they have some visuals up their with esteemed double A studios and the eerie and haunting atmosphere is why it was one of my first Steam Deck purchases. At that time, Grime was a PC only so I knew now that I had a PC, it would be one of the first games I bought for it and well, I'll save the story behind what happened next for a upcoming section. Coming back to Team Malignant, another reason why this game is so amazing is on the road to the 'Definitive Edition' which I am reviewing, GRIME was a labor of love for them and they constantly accepted feedback and made changes based on their passionate community. GRIME went through 3 named revisions 'Colors of Rot', 'Tinge of Terror' and 'Parting Shade' and each one added more content, more updates to the gameplay and more secrets and the craziest part was all of it was for free. It is why this whole section is dedicated to them because they deserve their flowers and I want to make sure I give it to them. Sure, it isn't unheard of in the indie/ double AA space to do free updates but still in a current market where most new releases are now $80 plus and live service this and season pass that, it is nice that some companies still want to just release content for free and to reward you for playing their game. This passion also extends into their game design as well.

    Hard as a Rock

    Released back in August 2021, GRIME is self described Action-Adventure RPG in which you crush your foes with living weapons and consume their remains with a black hole to strengthen your vessel. However to describe this game to gamers, GRIME is a metroidvania/ Souls-like. I have spoken before about my experiments with the metroidvania genre in my review for Ghost Song (which got an OKAY) but I've also completed other metroidvanias like Blasphemous, Shadow Complex and I have given some of them a try (the more popular ones like SteamWorld Dig 2, Hollow Knight and the father of the genre, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night). Overall, as a genre, I enjoy metroidvanias but they are not my favorite genre. I have definitely latched on to some more then others (Blasphemous vs Hollow Knight for example where I loved Blasphemous versus that I really did not 'get' Hollow Knight). One of the key corner-stones of metroidvanias is the exploration and just getting lost and I will not lie, I am usually not a fan of getting lost. For most of the Soulsborne games which I love, I usually have a walkthrough or a guide on hand so I explicitly do not get lost, it is just the way I programmed. I think it is why it took me a while to connect with metroidvanias in the first place. However now I understand why mv are structured the way they are and getting lost is part of the 'fun'. Metroidvanias are also structured around 'upgrades' like a air dash or a double jump and one of the best parts of mv is when you returned to a previously inaccessible area and you can now traverse it with your new upgrades. GRIME even make it more organic by making it apart of its story and the main character named Akhlan by some and Endgiver and Spiral Heart by others, uses the black hole it has for a head to absorb its defeated enemies to gain these new upgrades. Without a doubt, when you first start GRIME and you have barely any upgrades, Akhlan feels incomplete. They are slow, they have no stamina and they died instantly when touched and die you shall because GRIME is hard, rock hard even (pun intended) because whilst GRIME is definitely a metroidvania on the combat side it pulls directly from the Souls games. GRIME has a dodge, a stamina meter, a corpse run mechanic, a level up system similar to all Souls-like and top it off with challenging regular enemies, mini-bosses and some spectacular bosses all which can kill you with a touch (even the lowly cannon fodder have literal teeth), all hallmarks of the Souls-like mini genre. Also like staying true to Souls, there is no difficulty slider, the game starts hard and only gets harder (no pun intended this time lol) but so does Akhlan. As the endgiver grows in strength, they are able to wield stronger weapons, tank bigger hits and dash through the most dangerous attacks but one of the elements that makes them go to the next level is arguably my favorite mechanic in the game. GRIME has a parry mechanic and IT... IS... AMAZING. As a man who loves parry mechanics in his game, this is probably my favorite part of the game

    This parry mechanics is not tied to a specific weapon either, you will always have access to it since it is built into Akhlan and thanks to their blackhole instead of parrying per say, they absorb the attack into their abyss. The absorb mechanic is also balanced well, you can even absorb projectiles and throw them back at their senders (always an amazing feeling btw) but not everything can be absorbed and certain attacks/ obstacles still need to be dodged and certain mini-bosses/ bosses can be absorbed up until a certain point and then you need to finish them the good ol' fashion way aka beating them down with your weapon of choice. All of this combined with some very challenging platforming especially when you have all the upgrades gives you a game that us Souls vets like to say, you need to 'Git Gud' or die trying. Bosses have multi-phases that actually change their battle plan and some of them require you to use your traversal skills mid combat to really test your reactions. The gameplay loop of GRIME is so addictive that I found myself sinking hours upon hours into it and as I got closer to the end I did not want the first run to stop and I started seeking out more secrets (which this game has plenty of), more hidden nooks and crannies that hid more items, weapons and armor sets. Thanks to community feedback, the final version of the game you can unlock fast travel a lot sooner and they have added more short-cuts to each major area so when it came to achievement hunting it was made much easier. You want more? In this game when you kill the regular enemies enough times, you can unlock their 'traits' which you can also empower and build a playstyle around it. Want to focus on parrying? There is a trait for that. However lets say you ain't me and you want to focus on dodging and damaging enemies that way? There is trait for that playstyle too. You want more? How about armor sets that can be practical (aka with the stats like more damage/ health/ stamina you want and playing to the strengths of the aforementioned traits) but you can cosmetically wear the one you like so you do not look like a mis-matched clown with no shoes ala Dark Souls. How about when you die, you actually do not lose your souls or in this case 'mass' so you can still level up even after failing, instead your lost mass is tied to a currency multiplier and gives you a extra heal to boot when you claim it. I previously mentioned spectacular bosses with challenging multi phase fights, well if you want to relive those fights, once you beat the game you can re-fight any of the bosses at any time just to learn their patterns and feel the rush all over again of conquering them again. I am currently enjoying new game plus, something I rarely do in most games outside of my favorites and GRIME even addresses the new game plus fatigue by creating a true different experience, adding a hidden boss and giving everyone some new tricks to completely mess with your muscle memory and also letting you start with all your abilities unlocked so you can access later areas much earlier to almost break the regular way to play the game. This game truly is a complete package and it is amazing just how much love was poured into it. All I can say is if its upcoming sequel follows this model, I will again be signing up on day one. Speaking of.

This is only 1/5 of the entire map. Yeah its that big

    A Rocky Road

    As I previously mentioned, GRIME was one of the first game I bought when I got my Steam Deck. The minute I saw the initial trailer I was hooked and I always knew I would buy it because it gave me Blasphemous vibes which I previously played and loved on my PS4. Well the funniest story is when I started playing it initially I did not immediately connect with it. Sure, I've played metriodvanias before but each one I played after Blasphemous did not hit the same highs I did when I played them. It also did not help, most of my initial playthrough was an uphill battle and one thing you'll have to get used to in GRIME is your first playthrough is that you are very weak with barely any weapon options, limited heals and the game is relentless and unforgiving. I must have died on the first boss 'Amalgam' more times then I can count. All this combined with the fact I was playing it on the actual Steam Deck itself and not the set up I now prefer which is my Steam Deck hooked up to an external monitor with an external controller cause the Steam Deck controls do not cut it when you play something as intense as this. I think after getting lost for hours and finally finding a save spot at the 1/3 mark of the game I gave up and I started playing other games. I was still however entranced by the constant updates and content GRIME was putting out and I kept saying to myself, one day, I will try it again. About a year ago I completed my second metroidvania, Ghost Song and as per my review, I enjoyed it, especially the story but the game itself felt lacking and again, one of my biggest gripes with it was getting lost. Ghost Song had some other fundamental issues like horrible dodge windows, bullet sponge enemies, wonky controls in a game where precise jumps are always needed and artificially lengthening the game by making back tracking mandatory (something GRIME does not do thankfully) so I gave it my first OKAY rating. It was a recommendation but barely and once I beat the game and got all the easy achievements I was done with it. Ghost Song let me know I can finish metroidvanias and enjoy them if I stick with it. It however did not make me want to rush and play another one through so it truly did not make me a fan of the genre. All whilst this was happening, I still remembered I still had GRIME to play. I kept telling myself when I had the time for it I was going to give it a real try and that finally happened this month and man am I so happy I did because this game has ticked all my boxes, I not only beat the game, I am on task to beat the game again in new game plus even with the extra challenges, I am also not only easy achievement hunting, I aim to get all the achievements for it, I've watched lore videos to fully understand what is going on and its biggest compliment, it has made me a fan of the genre. Even while playing GRIME, when the going got good (and ironically it started happening after I gave up the first time lol) I started thinking of replicating this feeling in other metroidvanias. I am no longer scared of the challenge and getting lost in Hollow Knight, so now I want to see what all the hype is about, I want to unlock all the abilities in SteamWorld Dig 2 and see what you can do and due to Epic and Good Old Games (GOG) free games programs I have other metroidvanias to try like Death's Gambit Afterlife, Moonscars and Under Lillies at my fingertips just wanting to be played. GRIME biggest accomplishment is like what Dark Souls 3 did for Souls and Souls-like, it finally made me understand a genre that countless other people love and invest tons of time into. I finally GET metroidvanias and now I want to play more of them. However I do have one fear, just like how I compared Ghost Song to GRIME, will I now compare every mv after to it and will they exceed the mark like GRIME did? Time will tell.

Fallen for the Dark Side

    One of the darker elements of GRIME is it story. In typical Souls fashion, it is not told you to explicitly, letting you put together piece after piece by talking to NPCs, item descriptions and environmental storytelling. However you are able to piece together one consistent narrative, you are the villain. Akhlan is called the endgiver for a reason. Their goal is to absorb everything and anyone in their way and nothing can stop them. It is rare to play a game where the main character is fear, reviled but also at the same *MINOR SPOILERS* blessed and praised at the same time. Unlike my previous game that I reviewed earlier this month 'SteamWorld Quest Hand of Gilgamech' where I could not stand the main character, GRIME's protagonist/ antagonist pulled me into their vortex and by the end I wanted to see their mission to completion all without them saying one word. That is the power of a good character design versus a character where you feel shoe-horned into cheering for them and you just can not. The greater narrative of GRIME is definitely something you should look into if you are a fan of the game but all I can say is, do not expect sunshine and rainbows when the credits roll. It is not that type of game. However I must say, playing someone that people rightfully fear is definitely a power trip and another reason why this game is sticking with me so much.

    Stonewalled

    Now GRIME is getting my highest recommendation however it does have some small flaws which I am using this section to bring up. My biggest fault with the game is how long it takes for you to become the unstoppable machine you later become, as mentioned before the 1/3rd mark is where I gave up last time and by that point I was feeling like I was not getting anywhere and the frustration was getting to me. The game does not do a traditional map and only after feedback did they decided to add footsteps to help mark where you have travelled on a invisible at first map to help with backtracking to where you previously explored. Of course you get a detailed map for a area when you find a beacon but 90% of those beacons are not found until you have nearly completed the area, heck, one of these helpful beacons is even blocked by a very tough, challenging boss, so basically your access to the beacon is stonewalled. Another issue I have is actually much later in the game is once you pass a certain section, the game no longer has enemies other than the final bosses, everything just becomes a traversal challenge and whilst they are not bad challenges and real push your platforming skills to the limit, it really takes away from one of the elements I really enjoy about it, the combat. Speaking of traversal challenges, my final gripe is actually not a big one but I need to say it never-less, a lot of the high level traversal challenges normally end with decent loot, be it a weapon, armor piece/ set or a consumable with tons of mass to level you up but the challenge to get it does not feel proportionate with the challenges you faced to get their. Mind you, my current new game plus weapon is the weapon you earned for completing the hardest traversal challenge in the game and it is amazing so I guess sometimes it is worth it, however in new game + the same weapons/ armor are now just upgrade material which you should have plenty of. My only change here would be in new game plus to change the new items to mass to level up which will always be useful, no matter how early or late you are in the game. Beating the mini bosses and main bosses in new game plus however does give you some substantial rewards and in both cases they drop upgrade materials either for your weapons to become even more powerful and to enhance already maxed out traits to newer levels and just make Spiral Heart a even more dangerous foe. Again these a minor gripes and definitely does not take away from its final rating.

    Push & Pull

    This RAVE is getting pretty long so in this section I am going to just drop some quick facts and wrap up my final thoughts. The music by Alex Roe, a artist who seems to be a accomplished musician and has even made remixes of Dark Souls song, is really suitable for this type of game. He created a great menu song and the soundtrack is filled with some good tracks especially for the bosses, a good thing since if you are like me, you be dying a lot to them and restarting at the beginning, speaking of, I enjoy GRIME has placed boss and mini-bosses relatively close to their rest areas so the runbacks to them are not that long, especially if you unlocked the shortcuts and it gets you back into the action much faster. The sound effects are nice and crunchy with the right amount of emphasis on the right things, not the egregious sounds that Ghost Song made when your character ran out of stamina, the vacuum sound of your black hole when you are absorbing is especially satisfying and NPCs are voiced in their own unique language. 

    Speaking frankly; Blasphemous used to be my favorite metroidvania and I believe it will forever have a place in my heart. I also have very fond memories of Shadow Complex on my Xbox360 but other than those two, I have never had a metroidvania captivate me as much as GRIME. This is the game that made me finally get mv's and now I want more. As I said earlier I now want to play SteamWorld Dig 2 and actually finish it, I want to revisit Shadow Complex but maybe on Steam since its no longer exclusive to consoles. I even want to visit more dark indie titles in the vein of GRIME, like Moonscars and The Last Faith and see if they are hidden gems. I also want to give Hollow Knight a honest try and this time and see if it can connect with me on a second playthrough like how I did with GRIME, because GRIME is now my favorite metroidvania and if the other games can make me lock in like this one did, I know I'll have a great time again.

    I used the chapter title 'push and pull' for this final section because this game simply pushes you beyond your limits especially in the platforming challenges and some of the boss battles too but its pull is so magnetic that you want to just keep playing. I am actually want to complete this RAVE so I am jump back in and complete my new game plus run and get some final achievements along the way, GRIME has me in its gravity and I can not escape. I have stared into the abyss and it has stared back into me and I am no longer afraid of the challenges before me.

AV

Rave: SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

     

    Imagine how cool this would be. You start a campaign of Dungeons & Dragons and you are familiar with the setting already. You know what orcs, elves and dragons are and the first game you play it is played to its strengths, roll the die, dungeon master, hero sheets and what not. However when you return the next week to play it again, the dungeon master says this week you are playing the game like a first person shooter instead of a dungeon crawler and asks you to play by completely different rules. Same setting tho, just everything else has changed and the week after that the rules changes again. Well this is what it is like to experience a SteamWorld game.

    Hailing from Sweden, the SteamWorld series of games are created by Image & Form in partnership with Thunderful Group. Each of the SteamWorld games share the same post apocalyptic setting, steam punk aesthetic and an old western look but every game that comes out through SteamWorld (unless you count direct sequels) are different genres every time. For example; SteamWorld Dig is a Metroidvania, SteamWorld Tower Defense is a *gasp* tower defense game, SteamWorld Heist is a tactical shooter and our game in this Rave is an turn based, deck-building Roleplaying Game. So far the SteamWorld games have made a decent impact and they are selling enough of them to warrant direct sequels to Dig and Heist and the games themselves have dedicated fanbases. I, personally stumbled into the SteamWorld ecosystem via SteamWorld Dig 2 and I enjoyed playing it for awhile and funny enough now I am enjoying Metroidvanias again I think I might even go back to it sooner than later. With SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech through I decided to finally not only play it but to complete it as well and now we are done I must say it was a very fun experience. However I did have some gripes with some of the systems so I can only give it a Rave not a RAVE (which is the highest recommendation I can give). A Rave is still a 'you should play it' recommendation through and I think if you enjoy the RPG genre, this unique take on it will scratch that itch for you.

    First, it must be said that SteamWorld Quest (SWQ) keeps the setting from the other SteamWorld games but frames this one as a fairytale. This means steam punk-esque monsters, knights and more. The Western motif makes way for the typical swords and sorcery and it makes sense for them to do that. However it also changes the formula in some unique ways. The most obvious is that it goes the deckbuilding route and every character has a deck of cards they can pull from that you can change on the fly, upgrade existing cards and unlock stronger ones. More on this later but this difference changes the formula slightly and is one of the reasons I was attracted to this game since I am big fan of deckbuilding games such as Slay the Spire, Inscryption and many others. The second unique change is instead of a top down perspective that most RPG game use to traverse, SWQ decides to go with the side scrolling approach, more akin to beat 'em ups like Streets of Rage, Final Fight and other classics. This unique approach is another reason why it initially caught my eye and made me want to play it. It is funny now in hindsight that these two unique changes might be contributing to why this game only gets a Rave from me.

    Let us start with the elephant/ dragon in the room, the deckbuilding mechanic. So very quickly, you'll have a team of three characters and each of the characters have access to 8 cards they can draw from a collective pool. Some of the cards are free use and does not require the 'cog' mechanic which is what the system requires you to pull off stronger attacks/ cards based on how many cogs you have accumulated (if anything these let you add to your cog meter), most of the cards have a moderate cost of 1 to 2 cogs, that is fine as well. The very powerful cards tho require at least 4 cogs however more on that in a minute. My biggest issue with this mechanic is there were many, many battles where I will be stuck with useless cards that I could not use or because you have to constant attack and use up whatever cogs you built up you rarely get to use the powerful 4 cog attacks. Many times I put a 4 cog card in a deck hoping to use it at least once but by the end of the battle I just remove it because you never get the chance to use them. Sure, some characters can build cogs with certain cards but these require to use a turn just to 'power up'. Over the course of the 20 hrs I played I had many experiences where I was just spamming certain cards and get frustrated when certain cards did not show up even tho I built my deck around it. The game also allows you to 're-shuffle' not useful cards at least twice a turn but normally the RNG would not work in your favor and you'll get two more not useful cards. A lot of the times I would end a turn only playing one actual attack card, one buff card and not being able to use a third one because of all the bad options I was given. In extreme cases I even had whole hands where all I did was do some buffs with barely notice-able effects aka buff evasion and the enemy still hits you 90% of the time and I did no damage to the enemy. The enemy on the other hand always have attack options on deck and never miss their chance to attack you. Their attacks seem to have no cool down requirements and in one egregious example, would spam certain overpowered tactics over and over. The game also liked to encourage certain synergies as well, for example, if you use cards only from one deck/ character, the character will get an extra turn and perform what every skill is attached to the weapon they were wielding. However 90% of these effects are not even that great with an extreme examples being my favorite character Orik having 2 'chain' attacks which felt pointless. As mentioned before, the deckbuilding aspect is why I decided to give this game a try and after playing really good deckbuilders (Slay the Spire) and even competent ones (Tainted Grail: Conquest/ Indies' Lies) I was blown away by how un-finished this system felt. Personally I felt that each character should have a free cost block card to use if you ran out of card options. I built my decks, playing to my squad's strengths but due to the RNG nature, I seldom got the cards I needed, when I needed them and when that happens and you just hit have to move to your next turn after using only one attack card, it never felt good. This system SWQ implemented did not work as intended because this is the first deckbuilder where I constantly felt I had to just take hits from the enemies due to bad deck RNG. I know this is not just me too, I have seen many players complain about the same thing happening to them. I feel with a slight tweak and the addition of 'block' cards for every character (a mechanic used by pretty much every other deckbuilder) this could have been much less frustrating. So with this being the main hook of the game and it doesn't do it great, it is no wonder why I did not love this game as much as I wanted to.

All you need is Streets of Rage OST in the background

    The second change-up I was interested in was how you traverse in this game. Unlike every traditional RPG known to man, SWQ forgoes the top down perspective and allows you to explore the world in a side-scrolling perspective, much like the beat 'em ups of old. In this perspective, you can see the enemy encounters and you can either avoid them all together or if you are able to attack them before they see you, you can score a 'ambush' and deal some pre-emptive damage before the battle begins. The big problem with this however is there was a clear 'lag' felt when you hit the button in this mode to when it comes out and most of the swings come out way too late and the ambush mechanic just doesn't work as intended. The game also asks you to destroy scenery to earn extra money and open up pathways but even that felt weird and laggy. I would hit the button to swing at the log in front of me and many seconds later my character will do the action. Again, a good idea but it seems it was not implemented well at all. Also do not get me started on trying to avoid enemies, that never felt like that worked as intended either so you will find yourself fighting no matter what you try. Unlike the deckbuilding mechanics, I do not know what could be done to make these scenes less jank but in the end I just dealt with it.

    So with all the negativity so far, why does this game still get a Rave which is the second highest recommendation this blog can give. Well, the plain and simple part of it was I enjoyed myself. Whilst the story was not ground-breaking in any way, it still motivated me to play to the very end and complete it. It tells a simple tale of a rag bunch bunch of misfits finding the true hero inside each one of them and the game even pointedly at the end * spoiler alert * makes you fight your inner demons in one of the biggest example of bad difficulty spikes. The combat system whilst not the greatest as mentioned above is still competent enough that I kept playing and upgrading my deck and building strong strategies. Because this game is paced in terms of acts, I actually play one, sometimes two acts a day and I never got bored and near the end I even did multiple acts together because I knew I was getting closer to the end and wanted to see the credits roll and I am happy I did. I was happy to see the conclusion of the quest and see the outcomes for Orik, Galleo, The twins, Tarah & Thayne and Copernica. Anyone whom has played the game might noticed a notice absence from the roll call I just did and it is time to address my last big gripe about the game, its main character, Armilly.

    I am going to call myself out here, I really do not liked Armilly as the main character. I think it was a combination of most of her dialogue being obliviously day dreaming or generic hype manning (is that even a word lol), she seriously had no depth as a character and to top it off, her skill set was very underwhelming. When I learned early into the game I did not not have to always have her in my main squad I quickly changed her out and I never looked back. Also for the longest time I thought she was a male character because of the way she was designed but it turns out she is a female. I actually have no issue with a strong female lead character and even ones that don't look girl-ish, King from the King of Fighters/ Art of Fighting is one of my forever videogame crushes and I not threatened by Marvel's Captain Marvel in anyway for example but her design was just... weird. I think Armilly might be my least favorite main character of all time and sadly that also brings down my rating of this game. I actually started believing the mentor character (like Auron from Final Fantasy X) Orik was the main character and I stand by it and he had a much more exciting tool kit compared to Armilly's generic sword and fire attacks.

Who is this? The true main character? I believe so.

    SteamWorld Quest is also a pretty good looking game, nothing too fancy but it definitely keeps the SteamWorld steam punk aesthetic but tailors it towards fantasy as previous mentioned. It is cool to see a massive mecha dragon ( at least the first time we fought him... it became old after the third re-skin of them) and other classic fantasy archetypes re-imagined steam punk style and the music was suitably whimsical and suitable with the exception of an ending song during the credits that came out of nowhere that was actually really, really good. The controls were good enough tho as discussed earlier the weird lag during the side scrolling segments was a bit weird. I was however not a fan that the game was not fully optimized for mouse, having to use the keyboard to access a item/ healing menu which was also behind another click was not the business or to reload cards (which you frequently have to do). I feel both should have had an UI option on screen which you could have used the mouse to click on it but that is a minor gripe. A much more major gripe was the lack of tool tips aka what it does which are essential in deckbuilders. I played 20 hrs of the game and I can not tell you confidently what the skill 'Flinch' actually does. This could have been fixed with a simple glossary which I could not find in-game.

    Overall, SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech was a fun experience, it was not too long but also had enough meat on it that it felt worthwhile to play. The story was decent but most of the characters (with the exception of one) had storylines I wanted to see to the end and the gameplay whilst it had many flaws was addictive enough that I kept playing it. If anything, this game has made me want to revisit other SteamWorld games like Dig because what Image & Form does is so unique I want to see what else they have under their sleeves. Not every Quest is an epic one but some are just a good time and enjoyable journey and a good enjoyable time was had by me hence why SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech gets a Rave from me.

AV